1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cutting lengths of a material and, in particular, to feeding and guiding means for a cutting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known cutting apparatus which is available in the market is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,295 issued Mar. 24, 1981. The disclosure of that U.S. Patent is incorporated herein by this reference.
A problem arises with this known apparatus if one feeds in a new elongated material to be cut. Indeed, in order to feed such a new elongated material, the operator has to pull a knob with one hand and must push the elongated material with the other hand into the inlet side of the apparatus toward the outlet side where the cutting blade is mounted. Thus, the operator will have no free hands while feeding the elongated material and, therefore, will be unable to do any other manipulations such as move the cutting mechanism. As a result, the feeding procedure is quite difficult and time consuming and may be dangerous to the operator. In addition, in some cases the inserted material is not stiff enough to be pushed straight forward. Thus, the inserted material can curl between the roll and the cutting mechanism. In such cases the machine may jam.
This results in a time consuming-readjustment as well as refeeding the material. If the machine is watched constantly, the foregoing is a minor problem. However, if the machine is not monitored for a period of time, quite a few meters of elongated material can be stuck jammed the feed rolling mechanism and the cutting mechanism. In such a case, the material and the mechanical parts of the apparatus can be damaged. Further, to remove the curled part of the material, tools are necessary and, in some cases, a very time consuming repair is required.
Other apparatus known in the art are however extremely limited as to the materials and shapes and are not entirely satisfactory for cutting operations. The present invention solves the above mentioned problem by providing new guiding means for guiding the material between the feed roller mechanism and the cutting mechanism and by providing new means for lifting the feed roller mechanism in a manner which allows an operator to use both his hands for other manipulations on or in the apparatus.
The unique isolated adjustment device for a very fine adjustment of the gap within the feed roller mechanism is also disclosed. This isolation from the lifting device avoids possible unwanted adjustments during a simple raise operation of the feed roller mechanism.